Prosthetic implants for the replacement of a portion of a patient's joints are well known. Likewise, it is well known to provide a porous surface layer on the implant to promote the ingrowth of bone and enhance fixation of the implant within the bone. The porous surface layer may take the form of a plurality of small beads or a wire mesh. Commonly, the porous surface layer is sintered or diffusion bonded to the implant. Sintering or diffusion bonding requires that the implant and porous surface layer be heated to a temperature sufficient to cause the porous surface layer and implant body to fuse, melt, or bond together at their point of mutual contact. If the sintered or diffusion bonded junctions were viewed in cross section, a small notch would be seen extending into the implant on each side of a contact point between the porous surface layer and the implant. These notches decrease the mechanical strength of the implant. To compensate for the effect of the notches and maintain the strength of the implant above the minimum guidelines established by the FDA of 18.9 ksi, the prosthetic implant manufacturer designs the implant to ensure that the resultant strength is well above the established minimum after bonding. This may require the porous surface layer be limited only to areas of large cross sections to meet the design strength criterion. This may limit the manufacturer in the ability to place porous surface layers on smaller sized implants having smaller cross sections.